$7 Trillion Annual Market Projected for Autonomous Cars

July 12, 2018—In an unprecedented transformation of global industry, autonomous vehicles are about to displace drivers and generate $7 trillion per year by 2050 according to a study commissioned by Intel.

Multiple system tests already under way in cityscapes across the world.

The study predicts autonomous vehicles will create a massive economic opportunity that will scale from $800 billion in 2035 to $7 trillion by 2050, taking into consideration the value of all products and services derived from fully autonomous vehicles, including tangential savings such as time.

The study also postulates that because of greatly enhanced safety, autonomous vehicles will save more than 580,000 lives between 2035 and 2045.

Companies that don't engage now and prepare for autonomous transportation risk failure or possibly even extinction. However, though the potential and opportunity are exciting for this burgeoning industry, technological hurdles must still be overcome. If history is any indicator, the complexities of autonomous transportation will be solved like all other technical challenges in emerging industries that have come before, and outsized rewards will be delivered to those who provide solutions.

FLIR Systems, Inc. designs and delivers technologies to enhance perception and awareness, producing an automotive-qualified passive infrared sensor currently offered on several vehicles. Waymo, a subsidiary of Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc.started testing self-driving cars in 2009 and is recognized as a leader in the field. Ford Motor Company is aggressively testing autonomous vehicles to identify then target the most lucrative business model, while Tesla Inc. is leveraging its current semi-autonomous system, Autopilot, to collect real-world data about how those vehicles might perform fully autonomously.